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How does Shakespeare use emotions in Hamlet and Macbeth?

There is a lot of emotion in both Hamlet and Macbeth, and this emotion varies widely. There are, however, significant similarities in the ways Shakespeare displays the emotion of despair in famous soliloquies in both plays, and so it's worth analyzing this trend more closely.


In Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet, Hamlet utters some of the most famous words in English literature during his "To be, or not to be" speech (56-89). In...

There is a lot of emotion in both Hamlet and Macbeth, and this emotion varies widely. There are, however, significant similarities in the ways Shakespeare displays the emotion of despair in famous soliloquies in both plays, and so it's worth analyzing this trend more closely.


In Act 3, Scene 1 of Hamlet, Hamlet utters some of the most famous words in English literature during his "To be, or not to be" speech (56-89). In this speech, Hamlet displays muted despair as he contemplates suicide. This is a classic scene, and in it Hamlet broods on the difficult nature of existence and ponders whether or not there is any meaning to life at all.


In Act 5, Scene 5 of Macbeth, Macbeth speaks his "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow" soliloquy (19-28), a much shorter speech that wrestles with the same themes and emotions as Hamlet's "To be, or not to be." Reflecting on his wife's recent death, Macbeth despairs and regards life as a meaningless enterprise full of anxiety. Therefore, in both plays, Shakespeare uses soliloquies to communicate a poignant, emotional despair wrestling with the concept of meaning in life.

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